First Samarra, Now Sadr City

Better take care of these bastards now, because John Kerry sure won't:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Heavy fighting has erupted between U.S. troops and Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad's Sadr City slum after car bombs earlier killed at least 26 people in two Iraqi cities.

Witnesses said American AC-130 aircraft pounded suspected rebel positions in Sadr City, but there was no immediate word on casualties and the U.S. military said it had no information on the fighting.

The attack on the slum, a stronghold of firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was part of an offensive by U.S. and Iraqi forces to crush a raging insurgency and take back all of Iraq before elections scheduled for January.

Residents said they could hear the sound of AC-130 rapid-fire cannons as blasts shook Sadr City, home to more than two million people.

"I hear explosions. AC-130 planes were firing," said a Sadr City resident.

He said he saw at least 12 tanks moving into Sadr City late on Monday.

Helicopters could be heard in Baghdad heading in the direction of Sadr City....

In further bloodshed, Islamic militants distributed a video to an international news agency showing the killings of two men who identified themselves as an Italian of Iraqi origin and a Turk. A militant in the video accused the two of spying.

They were shown blindfolded and kneeling in front of a ditch before being shot, a scene likely to raise fresh concern over the fate of foreign hostages in Iraq. They include British engineer Ken Bigley and two French journalists.

First of all, Reuters, a sentence about the distribution of videotapes should not be introduced by the clause, "In further bloodshed..." It's the executions that are further bloodshed, not the delivery of proof of this to the press.

Second of all-- "militants"? Ah yes. The militants who execute civilians.

I remember in 1999 when James Byrd was killed by three "Texas militants."